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Quite out of the blue a stunning day with blue skies throughout and some warmth in the sun.

I spent a wonderful morning on the Severn Estuary meeting lots of interesting people and seeing lots of birds: I started at Aust Warth where I had great views of a short-eared owl and a kestrel; I then moved on to Northwick Warth where, for me, the bird of most interest was a golden plover.

On Pilning Wetlands I could make out Canada geese, mute swans, shovelers, tufted ducks, a little grebe, lapwings, a grey heron, a little egret and plenty I couldn’t make out.

I was about to leave, as it was getting a little fresh in the wind, when I realised the tide had come in enough to make the estuary quite interesting with shelduck, wigeon, dunlin, turnstone, redshank, and black-headed gulls.

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

On a trip to Midsomer Quilting in Chilcompton,  Somerset (the UK’s favourite quilting shop) we stopped off very briefly at Chew Valley Lakes but the only photos Oli (my young apprentice) and I managed were of tufted ducks and a shelduck at Herriott’s Bridge. There were also 4 shovelers but they were too far away to get a decent photo.

Male tufted duck (my photo)

Female tufted duck (Oli’s photo – for more see Oli’s page)

Shelduck

We supported Wendy for a while in the shop but then sneaked out to see what birds were about.

We saw a pied wagtail, 4 collared doves, 2 house sparrows, 4 robins and then to our surprise a little egret in a tree (the shop had reported there were 3 around).

Little egret

There was also a very cheery dunnock in a nearby tree.

Dunnock

After two weeks in the sunshine of South Africa I was expecting not to see much colour on a walk round my local patch of Eastville Park this morning but I was pleasantly surprised.

As well as the following birds which are photographed we saw the beautiful flash of blue as a kingfisher darted up river, the brown and fresh white of a treecreeper very close up and lots of great and blue tits (although their colour did not show too well).

We saw a dipper on the River Frome and the stream leading off.

There were robins in their usual territories (looking alert and making lots of noise) but blackbirds higher up in trees away from their normal territory.

The Canada geese were very feisty.

The mallards were on the lake and up trees (and who says the drakes are more attractive than the females?)

The black-headed gulls had heads of all colours:

The swan woke up when we were there and followed the moulting cygnet around the lake.

Even the lesser black backed gull looked quite attractive.

A couple of moorhen also added some contrast.

It would have been a lovely morning’s walk if a dog had not jumped up to my wife’s shoulders and knocked her flat on the floor causing her lots of bruising but thankfully nothing broken.

I have been trying to catalogue the birds I saw on my recent trip to Cape Town and have created a page of Western Cape Birds.

It is still a work in progress and I hope my young birdwatching friends Pierre and Gregory in Cape Town will help me to check and identify the birds (I would be pleased for anyone to help me with this project).

Although this was not a birdwatching trip there were plenty of opportunities to see and photograph a large selection of birds in very pleasant conditions.

Our last visit to Kirstenbosch on this trip to Cape Town: I was hoping to see male sunbirds (which we had seen on a previous trip) but we were unsuccessful but not unhappy as we had another lovely walk around the gardens and saw a spotted eagle-owl, and plenty of other birds

Does this count for a sun bird? A bird of paradise plant

Spotted eagle-owl

Olive thrush

Not sure about this one – maybe Cape robin-chat?

Cape bulbul

Pair of Cape bulbuls

Click below for gallery of photos

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

We made a return to Kirstenbosch after visiting the nearby  Winery at Groot Constantia just to relax after a busy morning.

Again we enjoyed the gardens but didn’t see much birdlife other than the ubiqitous Guineafowl and Egyptian geese.

Egyptian goose

Guineafowl

Cape bulbul

Click below for gallery of photos.

See travelog for Friday 2nd March 2018

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

It was noticeably warmer when we arrived in Stellenbosch with no coastal breezes and our visit to the leafy University of Stellenbosch’s Botanical Garden was very welcome. There were collections of fynbos plants, ferns. orchids, bonsai trees and dry-country succulents  from Namibia and the water lilies were reminiscent of the University of Bristol’s Botanical Gardens but not in sweltering greenhouse (even though there were greenhouses that we didn’t attempt to enter).

Click below for gallery of photos:

Travelog for Thursday 1st March 2018

Menu Cape Town Feb/March 2018

We so enjoyed the Rondevlei Nature Reserve earlier in our trip to Cape Town we decided to return. We were greeted by the warden who remembered us from our last trip. He suggested that we might also like to visit the Sewerage Works (!) and offered to draw up a map for us whilst we were visiting the reserve.

We didn’t see as much at Rondervlei this time but it was still a very worthwhile visit. However, we couldn’t resist a trip to the sewerage works and followed the warden’s excellent map. This trip was beyond our wildest dreams. Once we had signed in to the park we followed a road for about 4 kms and arrived at the sewerage works (a little smelly as we were warned). From there we followed gravel tracks in our car for kilometre after kilometre and saw the most amazing collection of birds  without ever getting out of the car. The birds didn’t seem affected by us and we could view the birds really close up.

I’ll post (some of) my photos now and try to identify later.

False Bay Nature Reserve photos followed by Rondevlei Reserve photos:

Rondervlei Reserve photos:

Travelog for Wednesday 28th February 2018

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This was to be a non “nature” day but there were a couple of things of interest on our walk through Camps Bay this morning.

We have only ever seen dassies on the top of Table Mountain so it was interesting to see them on the boulders in Camps Bay  at the bottom of Table Mountain.

One of the most unbelievable facts about Table Mountain’s dassies is that they are the closest related relatives to elephants. Despite the enormous difference in size between the two, research has claimed the dassie is the African elephant’s closest living relative. (see article)

We saw several dassies in this bay at Camps Bay 

I’m not sure what these terns are in the photo but (having read the following article http://nemesisbird.com/birding/bird-sightings/common-gulls-and-terns-of-south-africa/) can guess at sandwich terns.

Travelog Tuesday 27th February 2018

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Today we had the best of the weather so far on our trip with lots of sunshine and no cool wind until the evening.

We had a walk along the beach in Hout Bay in the early morning and saw our small cormorant (joined by a few others today) and a seal which came zooming up close to us on the beach.

We took the amazingly spectacular route along Chapman’s Peak to Simon’s Town to see the fascinating African Penguins on Boulders Beach. The swift terns and the Cape wagtails also put on a good display. The kelp gulls were very threatening and we even saw one steal a penguin’s egg.

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

Travelog for Monday 26th February

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A very full day visiting several hides in the West Coast National Park, 120 kilometres up the west coast from Cape Town.

We reached the lagoon at high tide and so most of the birds were quite distant but we visited other hides where the birds were much more accessible. I still can’t believe how the rock kestrel posed for us only a few yards from the car.

I look forward to some free time to identify some of the birds I haven’t got to grip with yet.

Rock kestrel

Bontebok

Cape bunting

Cape sparrow

Cape sparrow

White-throated canary 

African sacred ibis

African sacred ibis

Yellow-billed duck

?

Lesser flamingo

Lesser flamingo

On the foreshore there were curlew sandpiper, bar-tailed godwits, sanderlings and a few other small jobbies.

I’m sure I have seen this grey heron in Eastville Park

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

Travelog for Sunday 25th February

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This morning we visited the Rondevlei Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Cape Town. We arrived at the same time as a very excited school group and thought that our visit might be a disaster but we had a wonderful time with good sightings of a good number of species.

There have been sightings of 231 different species at this reserve since it opened in 1952. I hope to be able to identify some of the birds we saw today in the next couple of days if I get a few minutes to myself but our social programme has been very busy and as yet have not had the time, although we did get quite a lot of help from a very friendly and helpful lady birder in one of the hides.

A few of my favourites from this morning with a gallery of the other photos at the end (the last few were from the playing fields of SACS College where we watched some cricket and had a braai with our South African (and French) friends,

Karoo Prinia

Cape wagtail

Three-banded plover

Pin-tailed Whydah

Common waxbill

Flamingo

Black-winged stilt and greenshank

Avocet and black-winged stilt

Great white pelican

Great white pelican

Blacksmith lapwing

Glossy ibis

Barn swallow

Greenshank

Yellow-billed duck

View across the reserve

Sacred ibis

Click below for gallery of today’s photos:

Travelog for Saturday 24th February

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018